AuthorTopic: Linkin' FIGURE to BONE? Big DILEMMA... (Read 1476 times)

Scene mode: Let's say I need to make a cat grab a mouse and walk with it in its mouth. We have FIGURE1-cat and FIGURE2-mouse. Usually, I would animate the mouse position to follow the cat's head/mouth. But I wonder... is there a way to maybe link the mouse to the cat's head? We can link/parent objects and figures to each other' positions in anim8or but in this care, I'll need to link the mouse figure to one specific bone: the cat's head.The same problem would apply to a character grabbing a cup of coffee. Whoever got a solution for this problem gets a million dollars

This is one of the things that I wanted to do fro v1.0 but didn't get it finished. There are two components:

1. Animate the parent of an object.2. Add reference to coordinate systems of individual bones, not just the base figure.

So if you wanted a character to throw a ball, the ball's parent is set to the characters hand, and the ball's motion is controlled by the hand. As his arm swings forward the ball's parent changes to the world and can be animated independently.

Yes, would be great to set the hand (in this case) to be the parent of the ball. But I never found a way to set an individual bone as a parent to another figure.I believe there's no script/code I could use that makes the 2nd figure follow one specific bone of the 1st figure?

I hope you'll have a great time in Italy. Been there twice and it's awesome, Rome, Malaga...though it's way too warm in the summer

nemyax: Yeah...sounds like somethin' I won't be able to do...A while back, Steve gave a script that makes a target control bones rotation, rotating eyes for example. I was hoping somethin' similar could be used to attach the target to a specific bone...Yeah, sorry, that's Spain.

Sorry, Steve! I've just remembered something.Dunno if it's a bug but... Let's say I have the cat figure with 5 IK chains (4legs and head). I go in scene mode and make an animation. Then I want to add another IKchain for the tail, let's say. I go back in figure mode and create it. When trying to animate the new IKchain in the same scene, it won't work. And also, resets after a preview render. All 6IKchains (original 5 + the new one) work just fine only if I import the figure in a NEW scene.

Steve: That's weird, but I think I found the solution....after I made the new IKchains, I saved the project and closed anim8or. When I opened the project again, it worked. All IKchains in the original scene.

Btw, some features I noticed would ease the workflow:-the possibility to rearrange the layers. Usually it comes like: "Scene01/Wprld/Camera/Light01/Light02/Light03/Figure01"When I'm working on my laptop, and the screen being smaller, it would be great to be able to drag the figure on top, like "Scene01/World/Figure01/Camera/Loghts...."

- Sometimes I need to use the same cam position or lights. It would be great to be able to copy objects/lights/cam pos from one scene to another...

-dragging the keyframes in the timeline, like select/ then M+LEftClick&Drag for example.....

-a way to select all the keyframes. If I have a longer scene, like 20sec, there's no way to select all the keyframes.

-Could you add on the list for updates a...displacement map?

-and my old wish...a way to have the character's feet keep its orientation when locked on the ground. Like in this gif example someone posted a few months back...

-dragging the keyframes in the timeline, like select/ then M+LEftClick&Drag for example.....

Interesting idea. Currently the normal Ctrl-C, and Ctrl-X, keys copy and cut keys for the selected controllers, and Ctrl-V pastes them relative to the selected frame. So you can select frames 10-20 and some controllers, Copy/Cut them, and select another starting frame where you want to paste them.

Since click-dragging on the time track selects a range of frames using that to move the keys in the Move tool would be inconsistent. How about RMB Click-Drag, or Ctrl LMB Click-Drag to move keys?

Quote

- Sometimes I need to use the same cam position or lights. It would be great to be able to copy objects/lights/cam pos from one scene to another...

Also an interesting idea. Currently Ctrl+Sh+C and Ctrl+Sh+V copy and paste materials between different objects in the Object Editor. How about using those for copy/paste of element keys between scenes? If the names of the element and controller match then the keys would be pasted starting at the selected frame in the second scene.

Quote

-and my old wish...a way to have the character's feet keep its orientation when locked on the ground. Like in this gif example someone posted a few months back...

I worked on this a fair amount last fall but I couldn't get to working in a general manner. When you are trying to lock both the position and angle it's tricky because sometimes you can do one or the other exactly but not both. This can become really complicated when one IK chain is the parent of another.

I also want to add constraints such as Y >= 0 (i.e. don't let the feet do through the floor) which should be easier but I ran into problems. Probably just wasn't taking the right approach. I'll visit these again later on this year.

Quote

-a way to select all the keyframes. If I have a longer scene, like 20sec, there's no way to select all the keyframes.

1. Without locking the effector: a. Click on the handle to select to new chain, b. Click drag the effector around. c. Move to other frames and do the same.

2. By locking the new chain: a. Double click on the handle and lock the effector. b. Click-drag the effector in different frames, etc.

Yes, that's exactly how I do it. Maybe it happened because I have quite a few IKchains, but as long I can save and reopen and it works just fine I don't mind.

Quote

How about RMB Click-Drag, or Ctrl LMB Click-Drag to move keys?

Maybe Ctrl LMB Click-Drag. I'm lefthanded. That would work for me better I use Ctrl+X&Ctrl+V often, But yeah, a way to drag the selected frames would be awesome and useful.

Quote

Currently Ctrl+Sh+C and Ctrl+Sh+V copy and paste materials between different objects in the Object Editor. How about using those for copy/paste of element keys between scenes?

That would be just PERFECT

Quote

I also want to add constraints such as Y >= 0 (i.e. don't let the feet do through the floor) which should be easier but I ran into problems. Probably just wasn't taking the right approach. I'll visit these again later on this year.

Perhaps also using a key combination would be easier? When moving a character with its feet locked, and also hold down a key, that would keep the feet previous orientation and prevent going through the floor.

Maybe Ctrl LMB Click-Drag. I'm lefthanded. That would work for me better

Sorry to jump into this thread as I haven't been following it, however I noticed this comment and thought it worth mentioning that allowances for left-handedness are better handled in the mouse-configuration options of the OS where you should be able to reverse the meaning of LMB and RMB on your computer. (This shouldn't be a consideration in the design of the application.) I guess you almost certainly already know about this and were just joking about designing for left-handedness.